The Dress
by sharkinterviewee
Summary: "You still have this?" Jake sounded completely dumbfounded as he pulled the discovery out of Amy's closet. The this that he was referring to happened to be a dress. The dress. From the bet. Years after the fact, Jake Peralta (who was actually her boyfriend now) was holding out the horrible frumpy dress that he got as a joke after she lost a bet.


"You still have this?" Jake sounded completely dumbfounded as he pulled the discovery out of Amy's closet. He was rummaging around trying to find one of his shoes that he _swore_ he kicked off in the general direction of her open closet last night, but she knew it was far more likely that they probably ended up under the couch or on top of the fridge knowing Jake. It wasn't just that he lost stuff all the time, he lost them in the weirdest places with no explanation of how they got there when they finally reappeared.

Seriously, one time she found his keys in her cupboard. He was searching high and low for them, and she opened her cupboard to get some food and there they were, right next to the cereal boxes. No explanation.

Now, though, Jake was making a mess of her closet looking for a lost shoe (not a pair, a single shoe, he knew where the other one was).

"Have what?" She asked, sparing a moment from the crossword puzzle she was doing on her bed to look at him.

The _this_ that he was referring to happened to be a dress. _The_ dress. From _the_ bet. That horrible blue dress from years ago that was the most uncomfortable thing she had ever worn (and she actually wore three inch heels once, which Gina doesn't see as an accomplishment- to be fair Amy did end up falling down that one time and cursing half of all women's dress shoes anywhere).

Years after the fact, Jake Peralta (who was actually her boyfriend now) was holding out the horrible frumpy dress that he got as a joke after she lost a bet. It wasn't a gift, it was Jake trying to embarrass her with the punishment dress- the loser dress from closing more cases than her. And now after the fact he was looking at her so weirdly, then the dress, then Amy, then the dress, then back to Amy.

"You kept this? All this time? Why do you still have it?"

"What's wrong with keeping a free dress?" She muttered, hanging her head to focus back on her crossword and using her hair to covertly block the embarrassment on her cheeks. She prayed he would just let it go and she wouldn't have to dig into any embarrassing details, but she knew that wasn't gonna happen. This was Jake Peralta. Of course he wasn't gonna let it go. It was impossible for him to let anything go.

"I thought you were gonna burn this after that night," he slowly shook his head with a chuckle. "You _hated_ this. Not only do you hate things that take up space and do spring cleaning every season of the year, you hated how this looked with every fiber of your being!" Jake actually laughed, like it was the most unbelievable thing he had ever seen. "How did it make it through so many spring cleanings? There's no way you've worn this since that night. You'd never be caught dead in this if you didn't lose a bet."

"What's wrong with me keeping it? You're the one who gave it to me. It's not like I'm holding on to a picture of an ex years later. I still have a dress that my boyfriend gave me years later. What's your problem?"

Amy tried not to snap, but it still ended up coming out that way. She was overwhelmingly embarrassed and just wanted to drop the subject and shove the dress back in her closet and never bring it up ever again.

"I don't have a problem with it. I'm just... surprised. But the bet was years before we started dating. You didn't know I was ever gonna be your boyfriend the night of the bet. The bet was even before I went undercover, yeah? Before the night where I spilled my heart and guts out to you for the first time? You started saving this way before I ever said romantic-stylez to you. Did you just fold it in the bottom of your closet and forget about it after all these years? Do you want me to go put it in the box you're taking to goodwill so you won't forget?"

"No! It's mine! Don't touch it. It's not going anywhere," Amy got on her knees on her bed and snatched it away from him the second he mentioned putting it in the donation box.

Jake just blinked a few times, unsure of how to react to her outburst, and stared at her protectively clutching the dress to her chest as her face turned scarlet when she realized what she just did.

"Sorry. Didn't realize you were that attached to it. Of course it's yours. I just didn't realize you cared about it. Sorry for poking fun," he apologized carefully, still trying to understand her reaction and treading with caution so he wouldn't say the wrong thing since he still didn't get why she cared about an ugly prom dress he got as a joke.

Amy groaned and covered her face with her hand. "Oh my god, I'm so embarrassed. I didn't mean to do that. But yeah... it's important to me," she said softly, looking down as she spread it across her lap with care.

Jake sat beside her, the bed dipping slightly as he wrapped his arm around her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She sighed and nuzzled into him, her appreciative smile making an appearance.

"Can I ask why though?" He still sounded a bit hesitant, relaxing when she kissed his neck that she was still nuzzling into. "Why's it so important? More important than anything else I've given you? I've actually gotten you some nice presents cause I'm the best boyfriend ever. Serious and meaningful ones. Why does this gag gift matter when the soul purpose of it was to embarrass you? Why did you want to keep a stupid gag gift from five years ago from your completely platonic coworker?"

"Yeah, I know Jake. I was there," Amy smiled at the memory. "It was completely embarrassing. And I haven't worn it since and I don't think I ever will since it's ugly, itchy, and all kinds of uncomfortable. But it's a good memory. That was a good night. Well, everything up until you making me do that awful Titanic dance at the bar was dreadful. But on the roof that night..." she trailed off for a moment, her fingers still running over the fabric and her cheeks were honestly starting to hurt from her smile that kept getting bigger and bigger. "That was a good memory. Just talking. A happy memory. Even back then. The next day it was a happy memory. Didn't matter if I knew we'd end up anywhere close to where we are now. I actually had a lot of fun. That night. Well, everything before you gave up your punishment date plan was awful. But at the stakeout, and the peanut throwing competition we had- that night was a pretty fun night. I had fun that night. It was a happy memory. Right from the start. It's still a happy memory."

They both stared down at the dress, reminiscing in a comfortable silence. Jake interlaced his fingers with hers and she knew she couldn't be happier than she was right now. With him. Nothing could get better than this.

"Aw, you really do love me!" Jake teased, interrupting the serious mood, and Amy just shook her head at his ridiculousness.

"Of course I love you, dummy. I've only ever said it about a million times since then."

"Well I love you too, even though you calling me a dummy is just hurtful," he used his best pouty voice to get some sympathy that Amy just met with an eye roll and a punch to the shoulder.

* * *

"This should be your wedding dress," Jake said without a hint of a joke as he tugged at the fabric.

"I'm not wearing your creepy 13 year old crush dress on my wedding day, Peralta. No way."

"You wore it better. Besides, there's so much symbolism there. You can wear this dress and I can wear my bow tie and nice suit jacket and khaki shorts and we'll dress up as our first date when we get married. C'mon, that's so romantic. Even you gotta admit," Jake pulled out the puppy eyes and looked so adorable it was honestly unfair. She didn't even know what he was using them for. Did he want her to admit it was romantic? Or was he puppy dog eyeing her so she'd agree to his insane idea that wasn't even close to happening any time soon?

Still- it wasn't right. He already had the big brown eyes and when he went all puppy with them and the pouty face it was like cheating in any discussion they were having.

"Oh, put those away," she scoffed, covering his eyes with her hands as she elbowed him. "And the bet was _not_ our first date."

"Uh, yeah it was. Just cause our second date took place years after our first doesn't mean it wasn't our first date," he argued. "Honestly, the bet was probably the most expensive date I've ever taken you on, and you didn't get to see most of it! You only saw like a fourth of it. For the climax of the date I hired a choir to sing about how much you suck at midnight. I spent over a grand on a date we didn't even finish. You bet your ass that was our first date."

"Oh come on," Amy gave him a pointed look.

"Hey, just because you don't wanna accept it doesn't mean it wasn't our first date," Jake held up his hands in surrender with the most infuriatingly smug look on his face. "The bet was our first date. Ergo, you dressing like you did and me dressing like I did will be the most romantic thing in the world at our wedding. And you better not try and steal credit for my super romantic idea when we do it because that romance was all me, baby."

It was somewhat of a delayed reaction when it hit her exactly what they were joking about. Jake Peralta joking about marriage. But the way he was joking about it made it seem like the dressing up was the joking part, and the marriage part was inevitable. If she knew anything about her boyfriend it was that he did not joke about stuff like that. He got so uncomfortable whenever serious subjects like that were brought up even in passing, and if anything he would have an awkward laugh and make an excuse to exit the conversation as quick as possible. He never joked about stuff like that in case whoever he was talking to would get the idea to talk about it from his joke. He would never, ever do something like introducing the topic of marriage into a conversation by making a joke out of fear that would put it at the front of anyone's mind.

They hadn't even moved in together yet. She knew Jake better than she knew herself, but she had absolutely no idea how and why he was so comfortable with using the possibility of them getting married as a premise for one of his jokes. And why he made it sound like an inevitable premise at that.

She knew she had to say something about it when it finally sank in, but she had no clue what.

"You're, uh, talking awfully sure about us getting married. That just a joke too?" She mumbled.

Amy was staring down at her lap, at the dress really, when she hesitantly asked the question. She smoothed her hand over the fabric partly to calm herself with the comforting motion and partly because focusing on that gave her an excuse to not look at him. It gave her an excuse to push off seeing his reaction out of fear that it would be a bad one.

"I'm not proposing right now if that's what you're asking. But yeah, I'm certain. We're gonna do that eventually," Jake answered, no hint of a joke.

When she pushed back the hesitation and finally met his eyes she was reminded of all the things she loved about him and why she _knew_ she never had to be afraid with him.

Jake was smiling one of his warm and affectionate smiles that she so loved to see. The soft smile on his face that was just the slightest bit silly like he thought it was the most ridiculous thing in the world that she was nervous and worried about asking that question. That little tilt he got any time she was ever worried about bringing something up to him, and after she brought it up and the conversation went fine and all that worry was for nothing- he'd say something along the lines of 'You never have to worry about talking with me. Don't you know that by now?' followed by the affectionate smile with the amused tilt attached to it.

The same smile here, the 'don't you know that by now?' smile, the smile that she absolutely loves.

She shook her head at herself with a sigh, instantly forgetting any trepidation because, yes, she does know that by now.

"I always knew it was gonna be you," Jake murmured, reaching to brush aside the hair that had fallen in her face while she was hanging her head. He tucked it behind her ear and left his thumb to stroke her cheek, and even though it was a soft, quiet moment between them Amy just couldn't help but grin. A soft smile would have been good for this moment, but her lips were pulling into a huge cheesy one that was wide and giddy enough to ruin the serious moment.

"Yeah?" She asked, enjoying the way his face lit up at her happiness.

"Duh. I'm so not ready right now cause you know I'm a baby steps kind of person, but I'm certain right now that we're gonna do it eventually. I've known that for a long time. It's gonna be us, no doubt about it. I've known for sure it was gonna happen eventually for us for ages. I _always_ knew it was gonna be you."

"If only everyone made their commitment issues sound as romantic as you," she teased.

"Oh, ouch! Santiago that just stings," Jake clutched his chest like she just shot an arrow through it. "Also completely uncalled for since we're still on month eight. Call it commitment issues after our first year cause not being engaged when we've been dating eight months and not even living together yet is frighteningly normal. So that comment was completely uncalled for. You take that back," he ordered mock stern with a shaking finger.

"I love you," she offered instead of taking it back or apologizing, which ended with the two of them laughing like a couple of idiots which was a fairly accurate description of the two of them together. Two very happy idiots.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jake nodded his head. "I guess I love you too," he told her, the perfect imitation of a kid that was being forced by an adult to apologize to someone or else he'd be grounded.

* * *

The dress ended up carefully folded and placed back in her closet, Amy reassuring him that she would never, _ever_ wear it again.

It was expertly folded and tucked in the back corner, all nice and neat, and would never see the light of day again.

And they were both pretty okay with that.


End file.
